Renowned animal lover and chimpanzee scientist Jane Goodall recently published her first plant-based cookbook, EatMeatless – Good for Animals, the Earth and All. Along with the Jane Goodall Institute, she decided to create this collection of 80 plant-based recipes because, she said,

“It’s becoming more and more clear that the obsession with eating meat and dairy products and eggs is totally destroying the environment. It’s creating methane, it’s wasting water, and it’s bad for our health.”

Jane wrote the cookbook’s foreword and many nuggets of wisdom throughout the book.

A lifelong animal lover, Goodall became a vegetarian in the 1970s. “For me, the starting point was ethical,” she says.“It all began when I read Peter Singer’s Book.” Singer is an Australian moral philosopher. His book, Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals, was first published in 1975. In it, Singer explores non-human animals’ ability to experience suffering, particularly within factory farming.

“I didn’t know about factory farms up until that point, I was out in Gombe and I had no idea that they existed,” continues Goodall. “The next time I saw meat on my plate I thought ‘ah, that symbolizes fear, pain, death.’ And I didn’t eat anymore ever again.”

Though her initial reasons, she says, were “ethical and purely about animals,” they are now also about the environment. She is particularly concerned with the raising of animals on factory farms, which requires the clearing of huge swaths of habitat and the use of pesticides, fertilizer and lots of fossil fuels.

She also recognizes the health benefits, and the growing research that links meat to human antibiotic resistance and the emergence of superbugs. She has published many different books, including Harvest for Hope, a guide to mindful eating.

For those of any age, Goodall stresses it’s never too late to tweak your diet. She offers a simple suggestion for meat eaters: Start by going meatless one day a week. Her cookbook (or ours) is a great place to start.